Saturday night’s Powerball drawing is for a $193 million annuity ($99.6 million cash).
For God’s sake, if you’re going to buy a ticket and possibly be a winner, have a plan. Think big. There is nothing I hate more than those people that win $100 million and when asked what they’re going to use the money for, say remodel their kitchen and maybe buy a used pickup truck for the son-in-law.
NewMexiKen’s Powerball fantasy includes a tractor like this one:
And about 10,000 acres to go under it.
But that’s not first on my list. Hell, the tractor and land aren’t even on my first list.
Hey Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Washington and California, win the Mega Million drawing tonight and get $137 million cash. Win now before taxes go up for lottery and others among life’s winners.
The annuity value is $212 million, but who’d be crazy enough to take an annuity these days? The annuity might be with Citi or Bank of America.
Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is worth $181 million (or $84.6 million in cash).
Just sayin’.
Oh, and here’s the scoop on the latest winners:
The Harvey’s elected to take the “lump sum” cash option of $46,837,771, rather than the larger 29-year, 30-installment annuity.
A trucker since the age of 17, Don says he will buy a used truck with some of the winnings. When asked why he wouldn’t buy a new truck, he said because a used truck doesn’t immediately depreciate in value. They plan to share the money with family and pay bills.
A used truck and paying bills. They really haven’t a clue, do they? Doesn’t anyone ever win and think Paris, Rome, the Greek Islands?
iTunes 7.3, which was released yesterday to incorporate the iPhone, alphabetizes the library differently than its predecessors.
Punctuation marks are somehow incorporated into the order — for example, Miles Davis’s ‘Round Midnight or Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay. These used to be listed before “A” because of the apostrophe and the parenthesis. Now they show up under R and S.
And numbers now come after the letters rather than before — for example, Prince’s 1999.
I don’t care — I think I prefer this — but I thought it odd that the change was made.
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Some other stuff:
If you’re a shut-in you can check out the Moon Phase. (Today’s was a blue moon for most of the world. The U.S. had a blue moon last month.)
Here’s a bunch of photos of celebrities when they were kids. They’re captioned, but how many would you recognize?
For whatever reason, a video of Mika Brzezinski trying to do the right thing — and two knuckleheads.
Here in ‘Burque, using a pseudonym, a member of Mayor Marty’s cabinet called his radio show to flatter Marty and rail against the city council. Linda has ‘always been my alter-ego name’ CFO Gail Reese later said. Tbe Albuquerque Tribune has the story.
And Scott Adams has a take on lottery winners, prompted by the couple that won $105 million Wednesday night.
But I notice that the people who win are coincidentally the people who would be best for marketing future Powerball lotteries. You know what story you will never hear about a lottery winner? It’s this one:
“Wealthy bachelor neurosurgeon, age 30, wins $300 million in the lottery. The lucky winner, Winston Arbuckle III, says he plans to “Buy another yacht, smoke more weed, and float around the Mediterranean until I die from the clap.” Asked about his neurosurgery practice, Arbuckle quipped, “I never liked sick people.”
No, you will only hear stories about the modest couple with the hard-working husband, usually in his late fifties or early sixties. They will be “thinking about” getting a nicer house. In this latest lottery story, the husband is a long-haul trucker whose truck has recently crapped out. He plans to buy a new (used) truck and keep working.
According to reports, two million New Mexicans spent more than $154 million on Powerball and other lottery tickets in the year ending June 30. That’s $77 each (on average) for every man, woman and child.
Powerball Jackpot estimate for Saturday: $97 million ($52.5 million cash option). Odds of winning the jackpot are the same as always—one in 120,526,770. Odds of an asteroid wiping out life on earth in this century—one in 5,000.
With my luck I’d win Powerball and the asteroid would hit.
From Powerball: “A Missouri couple claimed half of a $ 261.3 million Powerball jackpot. Their spending plans are decidedly modest for the time being. He wants to get a tractor with brakes and she wants a new refrigerator. They chose the cash payment and walked away with $73.6 million (before taxes).”
Powerball Jackpot estimate for Saturday: $100 million ($51 million cash option). Odds of winning the jackpot are the same as always — one in 120,526,770. Odds of an asteroid wiping out life on earth in this century — one in 5,000.
With my luck I’d win Powerball and the asteroid would hit.
The Powerball Jackpot Saturday is $72,000,000 paid in 30 annual payments or $37,800,000 in cash. The Jackpot is occasionally more but something about $72 million appeals to me. I think I shall purchase the winning ticket.
